Standing Stones of Hope
By Lisa Colón DeLay
When I first spoke about remembrance stones, or Ebenezer stones, a visitor friend of mine wrote this:
I also have small “alters” of stones in my house…up in jars. They are written on with a sharpie pen. I write one or two words down when I have a breakthrough, or a praise. When people come to visit, they ask about the stones and I can tell them that “good things happen here”. I take that from the Bible. Whenever there was a victory, as you probably already know, they use to build an alter…so that when people came by, they would see, know and remember.
This visitor’s practice of erecting contemporary “standing stones” helps her remember God’s goodness, mighty works, and faithfulness in her life. It can help her tell her story. It’s wonderful to have a visual reminder, also, because we can too quickly forget God’s work when we hit troubling times, or get too busy.
The practice of using stones as a memory device goes WAY back. For a brief devotional or your own research, look up the Scriptures of Joshua 4:9, and I Samuel 7:12.
nsider trying this practice for yourself. The materials are easy to find, and when you go through your jar and reflect on what’s inside as you are alone with God, or with someone else, you’ll be reminded of God’s faithfulness, and goodness.
I’m sending out a (free) fragrant stone, plus 18 ideas for meaningful practices to increase awareness of God’s presence, and memory of his faithfulness. I’ve found something as simple as a stone can create added spiritual awareness and mindfulness, and this has brought me a lot of hopefulness and joy, as I have an enriched experience of God’s love. The stones I send out go to my blog visitors, like you, who express an interest. You can find out more here.
Lisa Colón DeLay regularly writes on topics such as prayer, purpose, soul care, spiritual practices, suffering, current cultural context & worldviews, theology, and community. Her contribution in Tyndale’s latest NLT Bible publication, Holy Bible:Mosiac, is a meditation on the subject of Anointing Oil and the Trinity. Lisa’s regular column, Notes from the Footpath: Existential Awareness for Life’s Journey is a spiritually formative feature that appears in the monthly publication Schuylkill News (circ. 15,000). She will receive her degree, a Masters of Arts in Religion, in Spiritual Formation this May. Visit her current project LifeAsPrayer.wordpress.com, or her site lisadelay.com.
Tags: Ebenezer, Lisa Colon DeLay, standing stones
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:55 am
i love this idea! i’m going to try to incorporate it into an alternative worship experience i do with my youth once a month. next month is thanksgiving theme so it seems relevant! thanks!
October 23rd, 2009 at 5:27 am
That’s great to hear. If you leave a comment (like this) on my Ebenezer stone page, I can email you 18 related spiritual practices that may be very helpful for your group. (to vary how the stone is used and keep the idea fresh, and a continual reminder)
Best wishes. I’d love to hear how that goes.
Lisa
PS Thanks so much, Julie, for posting this!
(There’s a typo in the second to last paragraph… first word should read “consider”.)
October 24th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Lisa, that is such an amazing way to daily remember and be thankful for God’s goodness in our lives. I do something similar about happy family moments. I write on little slips of paper when someone does something or says something and drop them in an apothecary jar. On New Year’s Eve, we each take turns remembering the year by reaching into the jar and sharing the memories.
Thank you for this! I will incorporate this into our daily process as well.
October 26th, 2009 at 2:44 am
1. It’s an altar.
2. The building of stone altars predates Christianity (and Judaism) by thosands of years. (e.g. Stone Henge, pyramids etc.) And it is taken, as so much in Christianity is, from Paganism.
On the other hand, the idea of keeping reminders of things that have gone well or things that need to be done is a good one. It enables you to keep going when things are not going well by reminding you of your inner strength and previous successes.